Light whatever ethics fuses you choose here today. As usual, traffic is minor on a long weekend. I have only one matter to pass on: Sen. Bernie Sanders’ dishonest and aburd criticism of the Paramount/CBS/”60 minutes” settlement, which would be an “Unethical Quote of the Week” if so many Axis hacks and liars hadn’t been saying the same thing. Quoth Bernie,
“Paramount’s decision will only embolden Trump to continue attacking, suing and intimidating the media which he has labeled ‘the enemy of the people.’ It is a dark day for independent journalism and freedom of the press — an essential part of our democracy. It is a victory for a president who is attempting to stifle dissent and undermine American democracy.”
Asshole.
In order:
1. Trump should be “emboldened.” The media has been indulging in fake news, manipulated reports, partisan bias and anti-democratic fact-hiding for far, far too long, and a reckoning is overdue as well as necessary.
2. The press should be intimidated to make it stop abusing the freedom of the press and deliberately misleading the public.
3. The news media is the enemy of the people. The “60 minutes” scandal showed why.
4. The dark day for independent journalism arrived the first time a major news source like CBS set out to elect one candidate over another instead of reporting objectively and fairly on both. Making it clear that journalists face some adverse consequences when they betray their public trust this brightens the day.
5. The essential part of democracy is the public being reliably informed about the world, the nation and its elected officials objectively, responsibly and fairly. so they can competently participate in their own government. When the free press decides to misuse its power and special privileges to mislead the public, that’s an attack on democracy.
6. How can anyone describe what CBS did with the Harris interview (or NBC, with “Saturday Night Live,” giving Harris an illegal free campaign commercial three days before the election) as “dissent”? Answer: They can if they are dishonest, unscrupulous, shameless Machiavellian leftists like Bernie. This is the guy who said outright that Harris was pretending to be more moderate in her views to get elected, and that was fine with him. “By any means necessary,” after all!
Did I mention that Sanders is an asshole?
7. Bernie and anyone else who stood by and allowed a demented Democratic President be manipulated by unelected back-room aides is estopped from ever using the term, “undermine American democracy”again. Channeling Albert Brooks in “Lost in America,” I’d say that they can’t even use the components of that phrase, “undermine,” “American,” and “democracy.”
8. And can we please stop tolerating the “Paramount settled because it wants the merger to be approved” lie, the agreed-upon narrative the news media has pushed to shift the blame from “60 minutes” to Trunp? Paramount and CBS settled because they did not dare go through discovery, which would reveal high level emails in which various executives openly discussed how to make sure Harris won and Trump lost. Those would create a professional scandal from which CBS might never recover.
Ethics Alarms 
Just a word of advice. Don’t be like Sergeant Major Ruiz of the USMC. He used a photo of Audie Murphy (with badly blurred face) to critique how to wear medals. Needless to say it didn’t go well with Army vets and active duty soldiers.
I know I don’t need to remind readers here that Murphy was the most decorated soldier of WW2. He was rejected by the Marines for being 110 lbs and 5’5”. He lied about his age and joined the Army. He thought he’d either help end the war or his life insurance would help support his siblings.
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2025/07/02/top-enlisted-marine-takes-a-swipe-at-audie-murphys-uniform-regs/
As long a journalism is stuck up the rear end of people who only want tabloid sensationalism, the sun will never rise.
“As long a journalism is stuck up the rear end of people who only want tabloid sensationalism, the sun will never rise.”
PWS
Here is something worth discussing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DLpzmfaxe2F/?e=5cbd0d7e-cc49-4eee-84c4-dbe0bc8be8da&g=5
Before dawn broke on a quiet Monday in October 2019, Kellie Nora Michelle was asleep in her van on Hoen Avenue in Santa Rosa — her dog curled beside her, the van their only shared refuge.
She never saw the car coming.
Traveling 90 mph in a 35 mph zone, Angel Ivan Martinez flew around a bend in the two-lane street, drunk behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger. He slammed into Michelle’s parked van with such force that it launched the vehicle into a power pole, then a tree, then another car. The wreckage sprawled across the block like shrapnel.
“I remember it being a horrific scene,” recalled Santa Rosa police Sgt. Patricia Seffens, who arrived that morning as a patrol officer. “The debris field was so expansive.”
Michelle and her dog died instantly. She was 50 — a mother, a Sonoma County native and a Rancho Cotate High School graduate. Friends and family described her as smart and free-spirited, someone who struggled with mental health issues, addiction and bouts of homelessness. At the time, she was renting a room nearby but chose to sleep in her van so she could stay with her dog, who didn’t get along with another pet inside.
Martinez’s license was revoked. He pleaded no contest in August 2020 to felony vehicular manslaughter and DUI.
And then — four years later — he got his license back. Despite killing someone, and later being arrested for driving unlicensed and giving police a false name, Martinez was issued a new California driver’s license in 2023. It’s valid through 2027.
He is not an outlier.
Tap the link in our bio to read more.
Story by Colin Atagi / File photo by @bschlanker
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0603512/?ref_=ttep_ep_13
So Disney hosts these episodes and I can’t guarantee it but it really seems like Disney censored out “hunting”.
There’s a scene where Tim shows off a series of shelves each with a “guy theme”. As it pans across each shelf Tim says “sports!” Then an awkward quiet spot then “armed forces” then his family and then Al’s family.
It’s weird because the awkward pause goes right over a theme where it would be natural to say “hunting”.
I think they erased the audio because hunting is “bad” now.